Critics of the debt limit cite the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which states: "the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned." (Emphasis ours)

Of course, the Fourteenth Amendment is open to wide, and varying, interpretation and debate. The most basic question here is, does a limit on debt "question" the "validity" of the debt?

Legal scholar Garrett Epps, writing in The Atlantic in April, said that a case could easily made for simply ignoring the congressionally mandated debt limit.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — President Barack Obama insisted Wednesday that tax breaks for the wealthy, owners of corporate jets, hedge-fund managers and oil and gas companies should be scrapped to help reduce the federal deficit, issuing a direct challenge to anti-tax congressional Republicans as the deadline for raising the U.S. debt ceiling draws closer.

Stop spending 100's of billions on war and make GE and Microsoft pay their taxes ( like you did to Willie Nelson ) and we could start a road to recovery. GE paid $0 dollars in taxes in 2010 even though they showed a profit of 14 billion ( the corp tax rate is 35% ) so you guys do the math. GE also claimed a 3 billion refund check which they supposedly later returned due to public outrage at their antics. Microscum payed 7% tax by using the same accounting tricks that GE used. Obama even gets financial advice from the CEO of GE which is just sad when he is the one who is cheating our country in the first place. We must stop companies from saying their profits originate in Ireland or the Cayman Islands in order to prevent paying their taxes, it won't happen though because our congress and senate are corrupt to the bone. We also need to end Iraq and Afghanistan and slash our military spending which is almost half the money spent for all countries on Earth ( probably is if you knew the off the books military expenditures ). All this while we give 3 billion a year to Israel to shoot women and children, how great a Country we really are and sadly we deserve the Government we are getting!